Review: Dead Frog Nut Brown Ale

A few weeks ago, Dead Frog Brewery out of Aldergrove BC made an appearance on the CBC show "The Big Decision" where they went to one of the Dragons from Dragon's Den, Virden, MB's own Jim Treliving, and asked for his help to save the brewery from losing even more money.

Well, this week one of Dead Frog's beers, Nut Brown Ale made its first appearance at my local Liquormart here in Brandon, MB. I didn't expect Dead Frog to make its way to Manitoba, especially only a few weeks after Dead Frog's appearance on The Big Decision.

Appearance: A dark brown ale, with a slight reddish-brown hue, similar to Coca Cola. Creamy beige head, minimal foam but it's not going anywhere. Comes in a custom made glass bottle with the company's logo and embossed "dead frogs" throughout the bottle. Slightly carbonated

Aroma: The Nut Brown is a bit nutty, a bit of a roasty aroma and a bit sweet. To me, it's reminiscent of a dark ale, or a lighter porter. Comparable to Sleeman's Fine Porter, but lighter and smoother.

Taste: This tastes a bit like Sleeman's Fine Porter as well, but also - lighter. First thing I noticed was a roasty & nutty taste. It's somewhat sweet, but smoother than Sleeman's Porter. It's fairly light in flavour. For a patio beer, this is quite decent, but for a savouring beer, it could have more oomph to it. It's not bad taste wise, certainly won't be too much for a beer drinker who likes something slightly darker than average, but nothing to write home about.

Overall thoughts: This sells for $11 before tax in Manitoba for a 6 pack (341mL), the custom made bottles are pretty nice but I think Dead Frog wouldn't be in as much debt as they are if they used standard brown bottles. The Nut Brown has similar taste/aroma to Sleeman Porter, but much lighter. It's pretty decent if you want a darker beer than normal to drink while watching Community to, but not a savouring kind of beer. It has an ABV of 5%. I hope to see more beer from BC in near future, but I crave beer from Quebec much more ;)

Cody Lobreau

Welcome to BeerCrank.ca! I'm a bit obsessed about craft beer, especially Canadian craft beer so I mainly review Canadian beer but I love to try beer from all over the world as well. My goal is to help influence the casual beer drinker to go out and expand their beer palate one way or another. Feel free to send some feedback!
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